Tuesday, June 8, 2010

iwi bind together to say no

I was a little concerned about the urgency of this meeting of the iwi leadership group but I am pleased that they have come out strongly rejecting the prefered government option regarding the foreshore and seabed repeal.

"Mark Solomon, Ngai Tahu chairman and member of a Maori iwi leadership group said the leadership group met on Friday and unanimously rejected the public domain proposal and agreed to seek assurances that past Treaty breaches were not used to extinguish rights."

"We refuse to forgo all of our rights and put our rights to the foreshore under the public domain, as long as there are still 12,500 titles sitting there, private titles to the foreshore," he told the TVNZ programme Q+A.

"If you put them into the public domain, then iwi will have the discussion about putting all of our rights into the public domain."